NASA Test Launches Rocket Escape System for Astronauts

NASA's Orion Launch Abort System launched on its first test flight, Pad Abort 1, on May 6, 2010 at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Here, the escape system (left) has reoriented the Orion capsule mockup and is poised to release it after a successful launch abort.

WHITE SANDS, New Mexico ? NASA launched a powerful
emergency escape system for its new Orion spacecraft on a successful test
flight Thursday, even as plans for the crew capsule are still being
restructured.

Called Pad Abort-1, the $220 million Orion
escape system test showcased the system that could be used to rescue a crew
and its spacecraft in case of emergencies at the launch pad. The test was
conducted here at the U.S. Army?s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Liftoff occurred on time at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT).

"Beautiful flight!" a test flight controller
said after liftoff. This SPACE.com
graphic shows how the escape system would work.

Roaring off into New Mexico skies, the Launch Abort System
propelled a boilerplate Orion crew module to some 6,000 feet (1,828 meters)
altitude on an arcing trajectory above the desert landscape. The entire test
lasted just 97 seconds.

After a rapid-fire sequence of events, including mid-air
reorientation, drogue and main parachute deployments, the capsule landed about
6,919 feet (2,108 meters) ? a bit farther than expected.

"Wow,
that went like clockwork from what I can see," said Jay
Estes, NASA's deputy manager of the Orion project office. "That's an
amazing test."

The
launch
abort system is designed to activate within milliseconds in the event of an
emergency on the launch pad or during initial ascent.

NASA
officials reveled in the launch escape system's successful test, which was the
first of its kind in more than 40 years.

"It's
the first abort system the U.S. has developed since Apollo," said Doug
Cooke, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems, after the test.
"It was a tremendous success."

Safer space vehicles

NASA officials noted that, although Orion is a component
of the agency?s Constellation program that?s now under both White House and
Congressional scrutiny, today?s test is part of the space agency?s ongoing
mission to develop safer space vehicles for all human spaceflight applications.

?It?s
nice to know it?s there. You never really want to use it, but having it there
and knowing you have an out is a big plus," NASA astronaut Scott Altman
told SPACE.com after watching the successful test launch. "It?s the abort
system that adds that extra level of safety that?s going to get us to the place
we want to be for ascent abort safety."

President Barack Obama said in an April 15 speech at
NASA?s Kennedy Space Center that he favors use of the Orion Crew Exploration
Vehicle in a stripped-down version to serve as an astronaut
lifeboat attached to the International Space Station.

The
primary motor is the abort motor, which is used to propel the crew module
away from the pad.

The
attitude control motor steers the vehicle to actively maintain stability
and reorient it as needed.

The
jettison motor pulls the whole launch abort system away from the crew
module and clears the way for parachute deployment and landing.

In addition to the motor stack, the launch abort system
also included a fairing assembly that covered the boilerplate Orion crew
vehicle and its nose cone.

The test flight was initiated by command from a specially
built mobile operations facility ? a large trailer acting as mission control.
That command ignited both the Launch Abort System?s abort and attitude control
motors, pulling the crew module in an upward trajectory from the pad to a
roughly mile-high altitude.

Government, industry team

An array of NASA centers and contractors were involved in
today?s Pad Abort-1 test.

The test module and launch abort system stack were built
at NASA?s Langley Research Center in Virginia. Systems installation and
integration took place at NASA?s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air
Force Base in California.

NASA?s Langley leads the development of the LAS in
partnership with the space agency?s Marshall Space Flight Center. Dryden is
conducting the launch abort flight test effort for the Orion Project Office at
the Johnson Space Center, Houston.

On the industrial side of the test, Lockheed Martin is
the prime contractor to NASA for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Orbital
Sciences Corporation is responsible for the design, development, test and
integration of the Launch Abort System for Lockheed Martin.

Culbertson told
SPACE.com that today?s test was important for a number of reasons.

?You needed to
complete this test to make sure you really did understand what you were
doing?because we are going to continue to fly people in space," he said.
"Whether it?s a commercially provided vehicle, or a government
vehicle?you?re going to need a launch abort system to insure their safety.?

Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, developed the attitude
control motor, which includes eight thrusters producing up to 7,000 pounds of
thrust. ATK also developed the abort motor to pull the capsule away from the
launch pad.

Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif., developed the jettison motor, which is the only motor of the three that
would be used in all flight cases to pull the escape tower from the crew
module.

While
euphoria, slaps on the back, and thumb's up signs were part of the visible scene here,
where the Orion program is headed remains foggy.

?Right now we?re in
the process of trying to define what the program going forward is going to be
and what the sequence will be,? said Douglas Cosens, Aerojet's Orion project
executive. ?We don?t know exactly what the next steps are as the Administration
and Congress figure out the next steps for human spaceflight and for the Orion
program. But certainly what took place here today is a demonstration of an
innovative and new technology. We have lots of hope for the future of this
system.?

Leonard
David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He
is past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space
World magazines and has written for SPACE.com since 1999.